This invention relates to a cervical orthosis for use with a patient having a cervical spine injury, and, more particularly, to an orthosis which immobilizes the cranium and cervical spine.
Care of the patient with a spinal injury correctly and necessarily begins at the scene of the accident. It is desirable to stabilize the spine of the patient before transporting the patient to a hospital in order to reduce the risk of any further injury. A splint or orthosis for this purpose should be capable of being easily and correctly applied by ambulance personnel without causing additional injury and should immobilize the cervical area of the spine while the patient is transported. A typical method of immobilizing the cervical spine prior to the invention involved the use of a backboard to which the patient was strapped or taped with adhesive tape, or held between two sand bags. Traction might be applied to the head by the use of skeletal tongs and a weight which was connected to the tongs by a cord.
Prior immobilizing devices have not been entirely satisfactory. For example, it is not unusual for an injured patient to experience emesis, and during emesis a patient must be turned on his side. However, with many immobilizing devices it is not possible to turn a patient quickly and easily while maintaining the immobilized relationship of the head, neck, and thoracic spine. Further, when weights are used to provide traction, the weights can swing or move as the transport vehicle turns, accelerates, or decelerates, and the traction force might not be maintained constant.
The invention provides a cervical immobilizing orthosis which can be easily applied to the patient at the scene of the injury, either before or after the patient is extricated. The orthosis is self-retaining and stabilizes the cranium, cervical spine, and thoracic spine. Traction or stability is applied by a head halter, which is provided with dynamic tension via elastic straps attached to the orthosis. A pulley arrangement of the straps allows the desired force to be applied merely by pulling on the ends of the straps. The device provides constant cervical spinal immobilization and/or traction while at the same time allowing resuscitation of the patient, turning of the patient during emesis, and ease of transport, without fear of changing the head, neck, and thoracic spine relationship. The orthosis can also be used to transport the patient from one hospital to another after skeletal traction tongs have already been applied to the patient. The tongs are attached to the orthosis by a cord or the elastic straps, allowing constant cranial-cervical traction to be provided during transport, irrespective of gravity changes associated with acceleration or deceleration of the transporting vehicle.